With the development of stapling devices, or skin clip appliers, particularly suited for surgical use, and the consequent speed with which incision or wound closure can be accomplished by a surgeon with such devices as compared to use of thread suture materials with needles requiring time-consuming tying of the suture material, it has become more and more common for a surgeon to choose skin clips or staples for incision or wound closures. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,643,851, 3,717,294 and 4,014,492 are representative of disclosures of surgical staplers, or skin clip appliers, and of surgical staples, or skin clips.
When staples, or skin clips are used for incision or wound closure, they are removed when the healing process has sufficiently progressed, or at such other time as the attending surgeon determines that removal is desirable. A number of removal tools, or extractors, are available. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,520 which discloses an extractor specifically designed for removal of surgical staples, or U.S. Pat. No. 2,202,984 which discloses a staple remover, originally intended for removal of staples from paper or like material, which could be used to remove surgical staples. However, many present removal tools cause a substantial amount of tissue damage, with consequent patient trauma, when the surgical staples, or skin clips, are being removed.